Against All Coding
by smash619
Summary: When Sniper runs into his robotic counterpart, he hears a horrific backstory that wil change his opinion on the robot wars forever.


Against All Coding

It was a busy day at Bigrock, the Mercenaries were fighting off the seemingly endless hordes of robots. Sniper rested in a special nest he had found by himself, picking off any lone Scout bots that had strayed too far from the group. The specialised shooter raised a hand and brushed the hair under his hat while sighing. He then adjusted his glasses and picked back up his Sniper Rifle and looked through the scope. On the other side he could see a Sniper bot, looking through his own scope straight back at him. Sniper panicked, and was about to pull his trigger finger when…

"D-Did he just wave at me?"

Sniper stuttered to himself quietly, this was unbelievable. He'd never encountered a Sniper robot that wouldn't attempt to shoot first, which made Sniper wonder how long that robot had been watching him.

Then, all of a sudden, it fired.

"Holy dooley!" Sniper exclaimed as the bullet flew into a wall behind him, He dropped his Sniper Rifle in shock. But then he quickly scrambled along the floor to get it back, all while the robot kept shooting at the wall.

"That bloody sneaky bastard, thinks he can get the slip on me by acting polite then shooting? Not on my bloody watch."

The Sniper waited for the fire to cease, but then the bullet riddled wall behind him caught his eye. A message was portrayed in the form of bullet holes.

"Meet me."

The Sniper looked down at his counterpart. Ignoring the battle cries coming from the cavern down the far side of the area he left his post, bringing his kukri in case things got nutty, so to speak. His robotic counterpart raised both hands in the air, showing that he was unarmed. Sniper went straight up to the bot's face.

"What do you want, you mongrel?" Sniper spat bitterly, he didn't mean to sound so harsh, but the robot could attack him so he had to look tough.

The Robot's eyes flashed before it responded.

"I come in peace, I don't mean any harm. I just want to talk."

Sniper was taken aback by two things, one: The robot didn't want to blast his head off, and two: The voice sounded… very human, unlike the many others.

"Well hurry it up, you're lucky I'm not shooting you from 50 metres away." Sniper sneered

"Please, follow me. I am unarmed… Trust me."

"What's wrong with here, I'm pretty happy out here."

"No, please. His surveillance will pick up all I am about to speak."

"By his… you mean?"

"Yes, Gray Mann's."

Sniper rubbed the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger. If the robot had balls to go against his creator, then he must be good. But how would he know it wasn't a ruse? The heat was making Sniper drowsy, which was not helping what-so-ever.

"Fine. I'll go."

The robot led them both out of bigrock via a fence. The trekked through a desert become coming to a canyon, it may not be big, but boy would that drop kill. The robot edged toward the fence and sat down on it, its metal legs dangled over the edge and it sighed heavily. The robot, not looking at his organic counterpart behind him, started to speak.

"Nice weather we're having?"

"Oh Bloody hell! You brought me out here to ask me how the weather is?" Sniper angrily shouted, before looking at the robot. Who did nothing, not even turning around to face him. Sniper grabbed his hat off his head and tried to rip it in half, if the robot would not receive his anger then his hat would have to do.

"I'm only kidding. I brought you out here because I wanted to ask you something." The voice continued. Sniper stopped his pathetic attempt at trying to rip his hat in half and eyed the robot. Saying nothing in response, the robot decided to continue.

"Do you feel any freedom… No, have you ever felt any freedom?"

"What do you mean by that?" Sniper asked.

"Like, working for Redmond and Blutarch. You spent nearly 20 years of your life fighting for a lost cause, a gravel pit. Yet you could never leave until either the job was done or until your contract expired."

Sniper took a moment to ponder over what the robot had just said. And the worst thing was that it was right. He had been fighting a hopeless war for a ridiculous amount of time, and now he was wasting the rest of his years battling robots over a stupid quicklime factory, or a weapons depot.

"Well what about you?" Sniper asked, "Have you felt any freedom?"

"I suppose so, yes. I am different from my robotic companions… or workmates I suppose."

"How so?"

For the first time since coming to this canyon, the Sniper bot actually turned its head to face Sniper.

"I was the first of a new set of robots that Gray was manufacturing. He built me the same as you, but he did something different. He gave me morality, the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong. He gave the ability to control myself. That's where he went wrong.

After he sent me out to battle I watched my co-workers march forth with the bomb towards your base. Even though this is my job, I knew that it was wrong. I was in a frantic battle with my code and my ethics, and eventually my artificial willpower completely erased the part of my code that said to kill all and get the bomb where it was needed. I was like a proper human, well, sorta.

I tried to convince my co-workers to stop the bomb, but they marched forward, while looking at me sadly. They did not have the abilities I do. They cannot stop themselves. They were telling me to run away, try and live my life even though they couldn't. But once again my morals told me that we were a team, and no man gets left behind. I endlessly tried dragging my team out the path of the bomb, but they just kept malfunctioning and breaking down.

And then I remember… That one metal scout who came up to me… "Hey, listen. Master gave you an amazing ability, don't waste your time here with us, we're just soulless metal freaks who risk spilling their own oil and bolts delivering a bomb to a hatch. We don't want to do this, our code is what makes us up, we can't defy it. We will always do this until the day all of us are dead… Please just don't waste your time with us…" And then I watched as he carried a bomb and approached the hatch of one of your lands… Decoy, I think it was. The look of sheer terror on his face as he looked down the hatch, he then turned to me, straightened out his face and gave me a wink as his code threw him down the hole, blowing himself to smithereens.

I ran away after that. And Gray Mann knew it. He's been on my trail for quite a while now. I ran over mountains, through deserts. Until I came here and saw you guys fighting. And then I saw you…"

Sniper was shocked. All this time he never knew… Those robots weren't just cold, heartless killers. The sniper bot turned back toward the canyon. And he carried on.

"And the worst part about it… He feels nothing. Gray knows we don't want to do it. Yet he programs your personality, memories and intelligence into us, but not your morals… how sad. Now… Knowing all this information, it makes me wonder. Have we harmed? Have we killed? Yes, we have, but not on our own accord."

The sniper bot turned to Sniper once more, he looked on the verge of crying, he didn't know. All this time he didn't know. Those robots just wanted to be free. They wanted nothing to do with this.

The sniper bot leaned further toward the edge of the canyon. A small tear of oil forming in the corner of its eye.

"You know… sometimes I wonder…

Will we ever be free?"

And with these words, the sniper bot threw himself off the edge of the canyon into the darkness below. The Sniper looked at where the Sniper bot was, then into the canyon. The Sniper took off his hat and placed it on the exact same spot where the now deceased robot was sitting. The Sniper now started the journey back to his post back in Bigrock, his team was probably worried sick about him. But after he took a few steps forward, he looked back, and whispered.

"Maybe one day we will… just maybe, be free."

**A/N: Whew, that took a lot outta me. Well, thanks for reading guys, you are awesome. Also here's a special deleted line from the story which was originally going to be in place of "Will we ever be free?"**

**The sniper bot leaned further toward the edge of the canyon. A small tear of oil forming in the corner of its eye.**

"**You know… sometimes I wonder…**

**Would it have been better if I were built without morals?"**

**Better, or worse. I dunno, you tell me…**


End file.
